Impunity, Revenge, and Grief: After the Darkness
by Traci the Fire Sprite
Summary: After Harry defeats Voldemort, he must deal with the death of his two best friends who he was unable to save when it mattered the most. He blames himself, but can't change what happened. Harry must somehow go on with his life. R/R even if you don't lik


Impunity, Revenge, and Grief  
By Traci Duncan  
  
Harry Potter kneeled down beside the two beds, tears streaming   
unchecked down his cheeks. Madame Pomfrey had been kind enough to leave   
the hospital wing while he grieved for his friends.   
He couldn't believe it, his two best friends were dead, and never   
coming back. I should have saved them, he thought. Dumbledore had told   
him that he knew that he couldn't have saved them, even if he had tried. But   
Harry didn't want to accept that, refused to accept that. It was his fault;   
he as good as killed his best friends. He was just as bad as Wormtail.   
He looked at Hermione's face. Any second now, her eyes would open   
and she would smile at him, and he would hear her ask him why he was crying.   
Any second now, any second……… but Harry knew he was being stupid. That   
second would never come, he was all alone.  
Harry turned away, he couldn't stand to see her oblivious, smiling face   
anymore. Instead, he turned to Ron's bed.  
Ron lay there with the exact same smile Hermione wore. Ron, the   
first friend Harry had ever had, was dead. Harry looked at Ron's face and   
knew, he knew he'd never escape the smile of Death.   
He stood up and looked at the peaceful faces of Hermione and Ron,   
both slightly smiling. But the calm smiles did nothing to help his feelings; in   
fact it made them worse. For it was almost as if the smiles were mocking   
him.  
"You didn't save us, Harry. If not for you, we would still be living. All   
your fault… ALL your fault…"  
"Ron and Hermione would never say that," Harry told himself, not even   
knowing he spoke aloud, "That's not them. Not them."  
"What are you doing, Potter?" said a cold voice behind him, "Begun to   
talk to yourself now, have you?"  
Harry whirled around in anger. Snape's sudden appearance didn't help   
him much right now. Snape was standing just inside the door wearing his   
usual black robes.  
"I asked you a question, Potter," said Snape, softly.  
Anger within Harry at Snape rushed to combine with the self-anger   
for not being able to save his only true friends and came boiling forth with   
such a ferocity that Snape totally forgot that he was a professor talking to   
a soon to graduate seventh year.  
"What do you mean 'what am I doing here'?!?!" Harry shouted at him,   
"I am here for good reason, unlike you Snape! You are pathetic! You   
probably think you're really witty coming to brag that my two best friends   
are dead because you had a Damnable grudge against my father who's ALSO   
dead!!!" Harry took a few steps forward, but some part of reason told him   
it wouldn't be a good idea to strangle Snape.  
Snape who had been caught off guard by the first harangue but had   
recovered his wits enough to spit out, "Are you ASKing for a detention,   
Potter?"  
But Harry wasn't to be trifled with, he knew what Snape was trying to   
do. Not about to give up, and still angry, he shouted, "Another thing!! You   
are contemptible! You always LOVE to push your advantage so you can give   
your rival's SON a hard time!! I never did anything to you! Why not forget   
the whole thing and just leave me alone!? I mean, NOW! Just leave, Snape!"  
Harry turned his back to Snape and kneeled down between the beds   
of his dead friends. He didn't care what Snape did.  
Snape just stood there as if frozen by the tirade Harry had just   
thrown at him. He took a deep breath, as if he hadn't been affected by   
what Harry had said, and started for the door. Before he reached it, he   
said, in a voice that was not at all like any voice Harry had heard him use   
before and made his look back at him, "I'm sorry for your loss, Potter." And   
then he strode out the door.  
"Professor?" Harry said tentatively. Snape's brooding form   
reappeared in the doorway.   
"What do you want, Potter?"  
Harry took what seemed to be the longest breath of his life and said,   
"Uh… Thanks."  
Snape paused, and then he said, "You'd better hurry, unless you want   
to be late for graduation, Potter."   
And he was gone.  
  
~Finis~  
  
Disclaimer:: JK Rowling owns the characters, I own nothing. Not even   
the word harangue; since it is a real word.  
  
A/N:: Ok, weird I know. I had always wanted to do a fic where the   
confrontation with Volde was over, but Harry had to deal with the loss of his   
friends. So I added a bit of Snape, 1 cup of Harry going off on him, baked   
at 350* then let cool, and came out with this very strange fic. Ah, what   
staying up on a school night can do to you. Yawn… I'm going back to bed……   



End file.
